


Maybe The Lies Are True

by BubuBORG



Series: Team Medi: Discord Prompts [10]
Category: Star Trek, TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Hypnotism, M/M, Other, Past Lives, discord prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-09
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2020-04-23 16:50:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19155097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubuBORG/pseuds/BubuBORG
Summary: Zero-Gee submits to exploring his past memories as a prototype Orc, and finds a message from the Past that no one expected.Story takes place fairly shortly after the events of "Tribe".





	Maybe The Lies Are True

**Author's Note:**

> From the Tolkien Fiction Discord Prompt.

 

“Let’s begin, Zero.”

 

 

Zero-Gee tried to relax on the apparatus that Dr. Nierseek and Professor Reid had him on.He was in Nierseek’s exam room, which, under normal circumstances, was pleasant, if clinical in nature.

Today was different. 

Nierseek held a hypospray in her diminutive hands, filled with a pale green liquid.She agitated it once, twice and moved toward Zero.

“Are you sure this will give results?” Bradley Reid asked her.

“I’ve cross-referenced my physio-analysis with similar species,” she replied, peering at Reid with her stalk-like eyes.It’s 89%, but that’s as good as I can promise.”

“A-are you certain this will not harm me?” Zero asked.From the periphery of the exam room, Vak looked on with concern.The two had been inseparable since…well, the bizarre turn of events which led to the creation of the new colony.He’d expressed these concerns from the beginning.

 

However, the argument for the uncovering of ancient knowledge was compelling.

 

Nierseek looked up at Zero and smiled reassuringly.“I would never hurt my number-one patient, Zero.You trust me, right?”

 

Zero nodded.

 

“Doctor, Professor,” Vak spoke up.“How will you know that what you learn from Zero is historically accurate?What if all you glean from his mind is simply a…” Vak struggled to find the words, “…A more elaborate version of our _Ghakk-lagal_?”Which referred to the ability of Arda’s orc-kind to access flashes of insight and memory from past lives, embedded in their DNA.

“No,” Bradley assured Vak.“This will be Zero’s own memory.His own actual experiences that we’ll be bringing to the fore.Besides,” he added.“Zero shouldn’t be able to experience that particular kind of Ghakk-lagal.he’s…unique.”

 

Zero-Gee (Which stood for Zero-Generation) was believed to be one of the first creatures developed untold millennia ago by the Numenorean Alliance that would eventually become the orcs on Arda.He’d been found with the twenty-four others, curated carefully, on a cryo-satellite above the planet’s surface. 

 

If they could access his early cognitive thoughts, it would grant them insights to an ancient and technologically advanced culture which had developed while humans on Earth were still figuring out fire.

 

The problem, Bradley would reiterate, and his colleagues would agree, was the reams of lore that had come about in the aftermath of the Cataclysm that had wiped Numenor off the face of the Quadrant.Not even the memories of the long-lived Quendi could be trusted.

 

The breakthrough had occurred when Zero had off-handedly spoken of a place only known about through crumbling scrolls and the lips of the likes of Galadriel or Cirdan on Arda.

 

Angband.

 

Which was enough to whisk Professor Reid through the Rolor Nebula within a week.After all, it’d been a rather dull semester at Kent, and Gatsby and Akoth had gotten in their own particular groove.No new Hellmouths discovered that year. 

 

“When I give you the injection, Zero, I want you to count backwards from twenty,” Nierseek told him. 

Zero nodded, but grasped her hand.“I am frightened,” he whispered.

She held his hand with both of hers.“I’ll be right here,” She promised.“And the professor, and Vak is watching you too.Now count with me…”

 

Zero kept his eyes on her.“Twenty, nineteen, eighteen…”

 

They made it to twelve before he fell into his induced state.

 

“All right,” Bradley spoke up.“Please give us your full designation, Zero.”

 

His voice was devoid of inflection.“I am Generation Zero, unit Zero-Zero-Two-One Five.”

“Can you tell us who created you, or who your handler was?” Bradley asked him.

“My design was supervised by Dr. Garanorch, who acquired the initial sample of Quendi material before making the final Beta tests.”

“What was your function?” Vak spoke up.

“Generation Zero was designed for multiple functions.Specialization was slated to be tested on Generation One.”

“What I meant was,” Vak said, “Why were you created?”

“The Zero Project was designed to supplement planetary workforces in a time when much effort was expended to take the Empire further toward the outermost territories,” Zero said.“General labor, specialized labor, orbital maintenance, transport operations…”

“Military functions?” Vak spoke up. 

“It was hoped by Garanorch that use of the subsequent Generations would remain outside the military, but once the Nol-Dor began their campaign, plans already were underway to create a Generation of soldiers.”

Bradley spoke up, mostly to wrest the questioning from Vak.“How are you in possession of this knowledge?” he asked Zero.

“Garanorch embedded his documentation as wetware in the Zero Units, in case of any incident in the testing process, or…”

Zero’s mouth shut, his jaw making an audible click sound.

 

“Zero?” Bradley said to him.“Doctor?”

Nierseek shook her head.“Vitals are strong.”

 

Vak moved toward them, and took Zero’s other hand.He glanced to Bradley.“Professor?”

“Zero.”

Zero looked up at the ceiling, his eyes unblinking.

“Why did he stop?” Vak asked, looking frantically between Bradley and Nierseek.“You said he’d be safe—“

“He is safe,” Reid asserted.“We just have to unlock the right response.He said ‘wetware’, which means it’s in there, somewhere.”

 

Zero jerked up, throwing off Nierseek and Vak’s hands.His eyes, wide open, didn’t seem to see him. 

“Can you hear me?” Zero said.

“Zero, we’re right here—“ Bradley said. 

“I can hear you,” Zero replied. 

Bradley’s brow furrowed.“Wait a minute.Quiet, Vak.”

 

“Great,” Zero said.“Do you know who I am?”

 

Vak turned to Bradley.“Is this a recording?” 

The professor shushed him.

 

“You are Maedhros, the Nol-Dor leader.You were interred at Angband approximately seventeen cycles ago.”

 

“That sounds about right.Listen, I’m going to give you a message.You’re being sent to Shakari, and that’s where this message needs to go.It’s the source.It’s the only way to lock Him away behind the Barrier once and for all.” 

 

“I’m not sufficient to—“

 

“You listen to me, dammit!They made you with my dead countrymen!You are a part of us, even if you don’t realize it.But you’re the prototypes for something new.Generation Zero, right?”

 

“Is that really Maedhros?” Vak whispered.

“It could be the man who inspired the legends of the Noldor.Whether he was the son of Feanor, or whether it was something more representational, we may not know,” Bradley replied.

“But we do,” Vak said.“We have Zero.”

Bradley shook his head.“Right now, we have a message in a bottle.”

 

“So when you go to Shakari, you talk to this woman.She’s Nol-Dor, just like me.She’s a scientist, so she’ll put you to work as an assistant.”

 

Zero went quiet for a moment.Nierseek went to her monitor to make sure his neural activity was safe.

 

“You know you can’t stop me from informing my overseer of your activities,” Zero finally spoke. 

 

“I’ve seen other Zero Units.Some of them speak our common language, without learning it.You have flashes, don’t you—of being something else, someone else.Don’t you?”

 

Vak looked like he was about to call out to Zero, to let him know he was there, that he didn’t have to remember, to not lose himself to this...this _accursed elf_ from the past.But as Zero recited both sides of the antiquated recording, he put his hand on Vak’s and patted it reassuringly. 

 

Whatever it was he was reciting, he was still in control.

 

However, the voice that replied after that was no more Zero’s than Maedhros.

 

“You took the Oath,” the new voice said.“This crusade you have undertaken is yours to see through.This creature can no more assure you victory than you can grasp with your own ruined arm.”

 

“F...Father?” Maedhros’s voice wavered. 

 

“The Oath consumes all.If you want the Barrier raised, you must undertake this task alone.It may be that you will be destroyed.But there is no turning back now.For your people.For the Nol-Dor.For the future of this galaxy.”

 

Bradley was struck dumb, staring at Zero, his mouth agape.Nierseek looked concerned, but didn’t understand the weight of the exchange. 

Vak held on to Zero’s hand for dear life.

 

Zero shook his head once, twice, and put his hand to his temple.“Hnn,” he grunted, and turned to Vak, his eyes in the here and now.“I think that’s enough for today.”

 

Vak looked at Zero with incredulity.“Your first _ghakk-lagal_ ,” he said, with weight in every word, “Was of Feanor?”

“Possibly,” Zero replied.“Again, we don’t know the truth behind the myths, and I was only reciting something that was placed within me to say.I had no agency in this act.”

Vak stood up straight and glanced at Bradley.“I think that’s something that’s happened to him far too many times, Professor,” he said.“First with Zog, and now this.Please, don’t put him through this any further.”

Bradley looked at Vak, then back to Zero.“It’s up to you, Zero.”

Zero was quiet a moment.“At least no more today,” he said.“As for the next session…?Please, give us time.”

Bradley unfolded his arms and raised them up.“Very well,” he said.“If you change your mind, and want to explore this further, you know how to get hold of me.Thank you, Doctor.”

Nierseek moved to hand Zero his shirt.“Of course.Zero, a pleasure as always.”

Zero threw his shirt on and hopped off the diagnostic bed.

 

Vak led Zero out of the clinic, back out into the bright midday sun.Around them, the settlement of Refuge bustled with activity. 

“Grab some runner-kebab from Giz’s?” Vak suggested.

“I’m not hungry,” Zero said.He still seemed…distant, as if he were still hundreds of thousands of years in the past.But then he turned toward Vak, and leaned his head on his shoulder.“Just take me to the lake.Where it’s peaceful.”

 

A moment passed, as they strolled toward the parkland around the lake.Vak finally gathered the courage to speak.

“Zero, I just wish I could…I wish I could find a way to give you peace.”

 

Zero scoffed, but held Vak’s hand tightly.“I know I can find it,” he said.“After all, I’m a Zero Unit.

 

“I was designed for multiple functions.”


End file.
